More funds for community hub – Golden Plains Shire council meeting briefs

LINTON Community Hub has been given fifteen thousand dollars for the next twelve months.

The money comes following the end of a year-long funding trial that ended in March, and was approved by Golden Plains Shire council at the Wednesday, 26 April meeting at Bannockburn.

The funds are to be put towards operational costs like cleaning, maintenance, and utilities.

The new agreement states the after this further 12-month period, the three groups involved will have to self-fund the facility.

Deputy-mayor Cr Gavin Gamble proposed an alternative motion that would have seen another funding review would be undertaken next year.

“Coming out of the period of COVID where Linton community groups were in disarray and have had trouble re-establishing themselves, I think it’s really important to give a bit of lead way and just let that stability happen,” he said.

However, that plan was voted down by all other councillors.

Cr Owen Sharkey likened the decision to going to the supermarket with his children.

“One of my reasons in which I really grapple over this is the same reason when I take my three kids to do shopping,” he said.

“I can’t give one child something and not the others as the cost becomes too tall.

“They are a fantastic group down there that do a huge amount of work but they’re one of the 1000 groups in the whole Shire who do fantastic work.”

Cr Helena Kirby said she hopes the Linton community come together to ensure the hub keeps running.

“I’m all for the Linton community really coming alive,” she said. “It’s not up to us around the council table, it’s up to the Linton and district community to make this go ahead.”

Petition received for response

Councillors voted in favour of receiving a petition wanting to stop Golden Plains Shire rezoning and selling public land in Bannockburn.

Mayor Cr Brett Cunningham left the room for the discussion after declaring a conflict of interest because he has a family member who lives in the area and has lodged a complaint.

Council choosing to receive of the petition means municipal CEO, Eric Braslis,  will consider the document and provide a response.

A main issue of contention in acknowledging the petition was that did not contain full addresses from all respondents, which is a requirement under governance rules.

Legal advice was sought by the Shire which decided the petition did contain enough information for it to be accepted despite not having some full addresses.

“Yes, we all believe in a democratic society and a petition is one way to get your voice across, however, when we do a petition it would be really good if we could have names and correct addresses,” said Cr Kirby.

“Online ones are very easy to just sit behind a computer and make something up but at the end of the day us councillors need to have direct information as to who is signing the petition.

“Just going by some of the names that I did read on the petition, there are names that I know and it’s coming up that they live in Melbourne with the postcode of 3000.”

Cr Sharkey echoed a similar sentiment.

“If you want to put a fair dinkum, honest petition forward I think we as a councillor group would rather see 20 people signing a petition with detailed names as opposed to change.org which makes their money by promoting petitions getting more signatures.”

Plan update for reserve

An updated plan of the Ross Creek Recreation Reserve was endorsed by councillors for public feedback.

Community engagement was conducted with community groups to develop the plan which gives recommendations based on needs identified in the document.

The recommendations suggest that six tennis courts but no basketball or netball courts would be built at the reserve, which Cr Kirby said was a concern.

“I would have liked to have seen a survey done to the local residents, I know in the document it says that the school has submissions and they had submissions from community groups but there wasn’t any submissions from the residents themselves,” she said.

“The high school children don’t go to the local primary school anymore and they are the ones who will be activating these spaces.

“Get in contact with the kids and the older children and see what they would like in their community.

“Yes, we have six tennis courts but in this day and age everything needs to be multi-use.”